Like the Mad Dog we reviewed, people are going to consider
the TTGI Plug-N Power because of power, price and modular
cables. 550W
is certainly a pretty powerful sounding number, and the TTGI branded Superflower
power supply costs even less than the Mad Dog. The modular
cables are just like those on the Mad Dog and still allow the user to only
add the cables they need, keeping
the inside of the case neat and clean and capable of better air-flow.

Here's our TTGI/SuperFlower and Mad Dog (left to right) next to each other.
Quite different looking on the outside. The interfaces for the cables
are
similar,
but are arranged differently.

Inside, the two look VERY similar. Note the same transformers, heatsinks,
etc. The fan controller on the TTGI (the small red board) is a bit
different.

This extra circuit board is installed on the input side of the TTGI/Superflower.
It looked a lot like Active PFC, but my model didn't have PFC and the .70
PF rating proves it.

The cables are similar to that of the
A.C. Ryan and are just like the Mad Dog's. The
connectors snap into the power supply so they shouldn't come out and
there's even a dedicated SATA power connector that provides 3.3V for
future SATA drives (currently, SATA drives only use 5V and 12V, but 3.3V
is in the specification.) They're not as pretty as the Ultra's
or even the OCZ's, but they're acceptable.

The ENORMOUS 140MM fan with it's four blue LED's.

On the back of the power supply, there's a little push
button and three lights. When we push the button, the RPM of the
ENORMOUS 140MM fan changes. What's nice is that the slowest setting
allows the thermostatic control to override the low RPM,
so when you start using the PSU and
it gets hot, the fan kicks up a few revolutions to compensate. The
other two settings are faster and are labeled "normal" and "turbo." Even
at full speed at the fastest setting, the fan was still VERY quiet. I
want all power supplies to have 140MM fans in them from now on! This
thing is fantastic. The PSU was typically around the neighborhood
of under 35 degrees Celsius, and when the PC is shut down, the fans kept
spinning for a couple of minutes so the temperatures never exceeded that
number!

A Honeycome grill for good air-flow. You can also see the fan-speed
selection button here.

All of the way to the right of the SunMoon where it says "AC" is where the
light is to tell me the power supply is on. The light is out. This
is the power supply in it's "cool down" mode where the fan spins for five
minutes after power off. Note the 2A load on the +5VSB and the 17mA
load on the 12V.

Inside we see typical SuperFlower neatness.
This is something that's hard to do with a modular unit. But
like the Mad Dog, the cables are all routed behind the interface PCB.
The heatsinks are still rather small,
and the transformers are small, but it looks like the AC filtering caps
got an upgrade from 1000uF to 1200uF.

Once again we see wires routed BEHIND the modular interface card.

Bigger caps (1200uF) can be found in the TTGI/SuperFlower (Mad Dog uses
1000uF) and the chopper gets a heatsink where in the Mad Dog it does
not.

The only thing similar about these two labels is the 3.3V, the 12V and the
UL listing number.

Reading the labels and counting the cables.....

So what does the TTGI label look like?

TTGI Plug-N Power 550W

+3.3V

+5V

+12V

-12V

-5V

+5VSB

Max Output Current

35A

50A

30A

1A

1A

3A

Max Combined Peak Wattage

275W

360W

12W

5W

15W

518W

32W

Let's take a look at what connectors we
get with this power supply. Keep in mind this unit is modular, so
these numbers can change by simply swapping out a cable.

Once again, the SATA connector allows for the 3.3V lead. Other modular
power supplies, and the use of adapters, negates this voltage.

TTGI Plug-N Power 550W

QUANTITY OF CONNECTORS

ATX connector

24-pin

2 x 2 12V connectors

1

2 x 3 PCIe

0

6-pin Xeon/AUX connector

0

5.25" Drive connectors

7*

3.5" Drive connectors

2

SATA Drive power connectors

2

Fan only connectors (thermostatically controlled 12V only)

0

* One of the 5.25" drive connectors has additional EMI filtering for use exclusively
with a hard drive or video card.

Note the lack of a PCI Express cable. Also there
are no fan only connectors and no AUX connector. There are plenty
of 5.25" Molexes, but only one with the EMI filter, similar to those
found on the Raidmax power supply, on it (not to say that the filter on
the end
of the cable actually makes much difference.) In a PCI Express system,
I would use this connector with an adapter for my video card.

Results and Conclusion

Mad Dog MD-500SCPS

Zero Load

Test One (364W)

Test Two (306W)

Test Three (465W)

Full Load (554W)

12V

12.14

11.8

12.5

11.15

11.54

5V

5.20

5.08

5.05

5.06

4.98

3.3V

3.46

3.41

3.41

3.40

3.38

Efficiency

29%

74%

75%

71%

63%

Power Factor

.53

.70

.68

.72

..73

Temperature under load = 34.8. Temps didn't rise after power off, but
got as high as 54.1 during the full load.

Power factor is an option for this power supply. As tested, the
power supply had a PF average of 74%. Not bad, and actually better
than the Mad Dog.

This power supply exhibited a lot of the same "issues" as the Mad Dog. As
long as the 12V was what was fully loaded, all of the rails looked good. And
as with most newer power supplies, if I load up the 5V, the 12V rises. But
the odd thing this, and the Mad Dog, did was the 12V dropped out of spec
when both the 12V and 5V were pumped up.

I managed to get 554W out of this power supply by leaving the 12V rail
at 30A and the 5V at 35A. The 12V started creeping back up and
I bet if I lowered the 12V back down, the voltage would start to come
back up even more just as it did with the Mad Dog.

Despite knowing my loads are unrealistic on the extreme end of the
spectrum (you're not going to load a PC up this much for this long
of period of time,) I'm still going to count this exhibition of flakiness
as a point against.

With added features like the "5-minute ramain running" fan (Superflower
didn't come up with a neat term for this) and the quieter 140MM fan
that kept things VERY cool, this PSU get's another half of a point
over the Mad Dog. The lower price gives it yet another half of
a point!

This power supply gets
an overall rating of 8.5.

I want to thank Spectre from over at [H]ardForums for letting me borrow
his power supply. I'm glad I didn't blow it up. I want to also
thank Ice Czar for his insightfulness as wisdom. If anyone has
any suggestions or would like to send a power supply in for review,
please contact me.